Education Workforce for the Future
Education Workforce for the Future Impact Lab
Advancing a healthy and sustainable education workforce.
About the Lab
The Education Workforce for the Future lab addresses pressing concerns of the education workforce in Australia and internationally, including the retention and attraction of teachers and leaders across all sectors.
We collaborate with government, schools and educational institutions, business and other stakeholders to research how education workforces can respond to an increasingly diverse and complex society. The lab will produce innovative outcomes that have a positive impact on educational workforce policy and practice.
A key aim of this work includes amplifying the voices of educators to better address future education workforce needs.
Our research
Our research program is organised around four interconnected strands:
- Educator retention
What factors influence educators’ decisions to stay or leave the teaching profession? A common view is that most attrition occurs in the first five years of teaching and the early years of appointment to a principalship. This claim drives significant focus and investment at the expense of mid- and late-career educators, large numbers of whom are also thinking about leaving the profession. - Working conditions for educators
What effect do working conditions have on staff wellbeing and performance? Working conditions and funding regimes vary across education sectors and jurisdictions, yet education policies tend mainly to focus on how we prepare teachers and leaders for classroom and school settings. - A diverse education workforce
Does the education workforce, at both teacher and leadership levels, adequately represent the cultural diversity of the communities it serves? To do so, it must draw on the talents of Australia’s diverse population. Workforce attrition of teachers and school leaders cannot be examined separately from issues of representation and social justice. - Innovative responses to an education workforce in crisis
What alternative workforce models exist nationally and internationally and what can we learn from them? Innovative responses are needed to address longstanding issues that have led to the current crisis in the education workforce. Learning from international and local experiences can help identify what works and develop context-based solutions.
Our research focus
About the team
Our expertise
The core research team has expertise in social justice in education, Indigenous education, cultural and linguistic diversity amongst students and in the education workforce, teacher education for hard-to-staff schools, teachers’ working conditions, and school leadership.
The team also has extensive partnerships with research and education system colleagues in Scandinavia, Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Brazil, the Caribbean, Fiji and New Zealand.
A key strength of our faculty is the diversity and depth of research relating to teachers’ work, preparing teachers and school leaders, the wellbeing of teachers and school leaders, early childhood education, and social justice and inclusion. As our research program evolves we have the capacity to draw on these diverse strengths.
Interested in being supervised on a research degree by members of this lab?
Please visit the How to Apply website, and follow Steps 1 and 2 before making contact.
Monash profiles and the Faculty's Find a Supervisor tool can help inform your decision about who to approach too.
Current projects
What the teaching profession needs now for the future
Project in conjunction with the Australian Education Union (Victoria Branch) 2024 – 2025
Led by Dr Fiona Longmuir
The impact of teacher shortages on teachers remaining in hard to staff schools
ARC Discovery Project 2023–2026
Led by Professor Jo Lampert
Congratulations to Jo Lampert and her co-authors, whose paper from this research, ‘Still Standing: An ecological perspective on teachers remaining in hard-to-staff schools’ was recognised by the International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) at their biennial conference. The award of 500GPB is given to an outstanding article published in the previous two calendar years (in this case, 2023 & 2024). The article is open access and can be downloaded from the link below.
- Lampert, J., McPherson, A. & Burnett, B. (2024). Still Standing: An ecological perspective on teachers remaining in hard-to-staff schools. Teachers and Teaching, 30.1: 116–130.
Invisible labour: Principals’ emotional labour in volatile times
ARC Discovery Project 2023–2025
Led by Professor Jane Wilkinson, CI Fiona Longmuir
Teacher capabilities in conditions of superdiversity
ARC Discovery Project 2022–2024
Led by Professor Alex Kostogriz, CI Jane Wilkinson
Shaping our Future - National Children's Education and Care Workforce Strategy 2022-2031. Focus
Area 4.3: Initiate and promote research monitoring the wellbeing of educators and teachers
Led by Associate Professor Kelly-Ann Allen, CI Fiona Longmuir
Publications and reports
Our published research
Keddie, A., Delany, T., Wilkinson, J., Chandler, P., Grice, C., Walsh, L., & Longmuir, F. (2026). The gendered dimensions of principals’ emotional labour: suppression, self-doubt and self-blame. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1–11.
Delany, T., Keddie, A., Wilkinson, J., Chandler, P., Longmuir, F., Walsh, L., & Grice, C. (2026). Of course they care! Understanding the caring work of principals in Australian government schools. School Leadership & Management, 1–21.
Wilkinson, J. (2026). The undermining of public education and universities in the USA: implications for education and educational leadership, Second International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Social (In)Justice. Living edn, Springer, Cham Switzerland, pp. 1-30.
Invisible Labour: Principals’ Emotional Labour in Volatile Times (Report 4: “Hung out to Dry”)
This fourth report in the series investigates how systemic conditions within Australian public education intensify the emotional labour of school principals. Drawing on 298 critical incident testimonies from 256 public-school principals, stakeholder interviews, case studies and a policy audit, the study reveals a pattern of neglect, overwork, and emotional strain that is pushing principals to the brink—physically, mentally and professionally.
Invisible Labour: Principals’ Emotional Labour in Volatile Times (Report 3: The Escalation of Violence in Schools and Its Repercussions for Principals’ Emotional Labour)
The report investigates the rising violence in Australian schools and its profound impact on the emotional labour of public-school principals. Drawing on 298 critical incident testimonies from 256 public-school principals, corroborated by stakeholder interviews, case studies and a policy audit, the research reveals how principals are increasingly expected to manage physical threats, gendered violence, and systemic neglect—often without adequate support or recognition.
Lampert, J, McPherson, A & Wilkinson, J. (2026). Teacher education reform and the reproduction of social inequality, Preparing Teachers for Social Change: Teacher Education at a Crossroad. 1st edn, Routledge, Abingdon UK, pp. 102-112.
Longmuir, F. (2026). Burnt-out and demoralised: mid-career attrition from the teaching workforce. Teachers and Teaching, 1–17.
What the profession needs now for the future: Final report
Invisible Labour: Principals’ Emotional Labour in Volatile Times (Report 2: The Emotional Labour of the School Principal)
This report is the second in the series examining the emotional labour of principals in Australian public schools. This volume draws on findings from a survey of public-school principals’ critical incident testimonies, as well as interviews and case studies, to examine the impacts of emotional labour on individuals’ health, wellbeing and professional sustainability.
Invisible Labour: Principals’ Emotional Labour in Volatile Times (Report 1: Technical Overview)
Lab leads Jane Wilkinson and Fiona Longmuir are contributing authors of this report on the emotional labour of principals in public schools in Australia. This is the first of four reports arising from an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant, awarded in 2023. This report provides a theoretical and methodological overview of the research.
What the profession needs now for the future: School staff, parent, carer and community partnerships in Victoria’s public schools
The third report in the series produced for the Australian Education Union presents evidence from school staff along with parents and carers about how partnerships between schools, families and communities can support high quality education and student and staff wellbeing. Find out more about this project.
Bridging the Gap. A pathway to excellence and equity in Australian schools through needs-based funding and equitable policy
Professor Jo Lampert is the co-author of a new publication produced by policy thinktank The McKell Institute. This timely report examines how Queensland can address educational decline through needs-based funding.
What the profession needs now for the future: Provision for Victoria’s public schools
This is the second report in a series that aims to generate important discussions about the needs of Victoria’s public education workforce. This report focuses on areas of staffing, facilities, curriculum and supporting diverse learners. Find out more about this project.
What the profession needs now for the future: Work in Victoria’s public schools
This is the first in a series of reports arising out of the ‘What the teaching profession needs now for the future’ research project, funded by the Australian Education Union (Victoria branch). This paper describes the characteristics of the current work of teachers, school leaders and education support staff, with a focus on employment arrangements, workload, salary and conditions, and intention of staff to remain in Victorian public schools. Find out more about this project.
Australian Teachers Perceptions of their Work in 2022
This is the third in a series of reports arising out of a survey first conducted in 2019 about how teachers feel about their work and their profession. In 2022, 80% of teachers felt a sense of belonging to their profession, yet only 30% planned to keep teaching.
We are currently seeking support to continue this research and find out if this has changed in 2024. Please email Fiona Longmuir at Fiona.Longmuir@monash.edu to find out more.
Research into Initiatives to Prepare and Supply a Workforce for Hard-to-Staff Schools
This project examines the notion of teacher shortages within ‘hard-to-staff’ schools across not only rural, regional, and remote geographic contexts, but also across high poverty school settings and within key discipline or subject areas. The project sought to learn more about the reasons teachers accept or fail to take up the many vacant positions in these schools or prematurely leave the profession once employed in these complex settings.
Leading for Social Cohesion in Victorian Public Schools
This report examines key findings from a survey of 91 Victorian public school principals and assistant principals on leading for social cohesion. Conducted in 2020, the survey aimed to identify the major social issues that were impacting students in Victorian public schools; key resources and supports that were helping school leaders to build more socially cohesive school communities; and the gaps in supporting and resourcing school leaders to carry out this important role.
Publications that cite our research
OECD Education Policy Outlook 2024
Professor Jo Lampert’s research on teacher shortages in hard-to-staff schools has been cited in the OECD’s Education Policy Outlook 2024 report, an annual global review of education policy